Instant Messaging (IM) is the delivery of text or other media messages between two users in near-real time. IM allows a user to maintain a buddy or contact list, listing people with whom the user might exchange instant messages. The user selects a person from the list that is currently logged-in with respect to the IM service and establishes a data communication session with a remote device being used by the selected person. In a personal computer type implementation, the IM software on the user's device opens a window on the computer display. Typically, the window includes two parts, each of which provides a slightly different functionality. One part of the window allows the user to type messages for transmission to the remote user device, whereas the other part receives messages from the remote user device and displays those messages to this user. The remote user's device will provide similar input and display functions, and in this way, both users can read what the other has typed.
Originally, IM service was offered as a text messaging service between users' computers connected to the Internet. However, as the popularity of IM services grew, the IM service offerings were extended to users of wireless mobile devices, such as cellular telephones, wireless email devices and personal digital assistants (PDAs). U.S. Pat. No. 7,120,455 to Chen et al., for example, discloses a technique for mobile instant messaging, particularly adapted to provide interfaces to a number of different IM systems or communities. However, these communities are those served by commercial IM providers, such as AIM, MSN, Yahoo IM or the like.
Much of the IM traffic today is between individual users/customers, for example, to permit chat between friends and family members. However, enterprises have found that the real time text communication offered by IM services also provides a valuable collaborative tool between enterprise personnel, in the context of a wide range of commercial, educational and governmental activities. IM services typically involve text communication; but increasingly, such communications can communicate a variety of other types of information media, such as voice, images and video in near real time, both in private IM services and enterprise IM services. Hence, enterprise IM typically entails the delivery of text or other media messages between two enterprise users in near-real time.
Use of IM by enterprise personnel, however, raises a number of unique concerns. The overriding concern is security. Many of the IM messages between enterprise personnel may contain highly confidential information of the enterprise, and the enterprise has an attendant need to prevent misdirection or interception of the messages.
US application publication no. 2003/0204741 to Schoen et al. proposed a secure public key infrastructure type proxy for instant messaging clients. The publication describes an encryption technique. Although the publication recognizes the need of businesses and government entities for security, the encryption is apparently implemented in a non-corporate environment utilizing commercial IM services. For example, the publication suggests public key infrastructure proxies may be implemented on the IM servers and client devices themselves. There is no mention of how the IM service would be extended securely into the wireless domain, that is to say to wireless mobile client devices.
In actual practice, enterprise IM services have been deployed using one of two approaches. One approach is for the Enterprise IT policy to allow the use of commercial IM services such as Yahoo, AIM and MSN. These services are readily available but do not have secure messaging capability.
The other, more secure approach used to date in actual deployments implements the enterprise IM service within the enterprise environment, from desktop to desktop. IM traffic can be readily sent within existing messaging environments such as IBM Lotus Instant Messaging (Sametime) and Microsoft Office Live Communications Server (LCS). These messaging environments only support IM within their platform or community and do not extend IM onto other messaging environments including commercial IM services such as Yahoo, America On-Ling IM and MSN communities. Security includes encryption of user credentials (user name and password), message content and logging of conversations. Also, in these secure enterprise IM environments, the IM messages are prohibited from going to or coming from a wireless device.
Hence, there is a need for a technique to extend secure IM service for an enterprise to wireless devices that may participate in IM sessions via a public mobile or wireless communication network. Clearly, the security for the enterprise IM message needs to be extended to the wireless device, including through the wireless network that provides communications with the wireless/mobile device.